She's My What?
by Athena's Helm
Summary: A short companion piece to Rule the Waves, this being the incident when Percy dates Claire and finds out her true identity.


**A short companion piece I thought would be interesting to do after writing the most recent chapter of Rule the Waves**. **I may do a few of these, based on the incidents I reference in the main story.**

It was about halfway through my second year at the US Naval Academy. I was still in a completely depressed state. You see, Annabeth disappeared about a year and a half ago. I spent an entire year searching for her, almost managing to fail all my first-year classes at the academy. Finally, about six months ago, Thalia had brought me to face a tough reality; Annabeth was probably dead. So, I slipped into depression. It probably would have been worse, but Thalia had agreed to stick by me. We also had managed to make a few friends at the Academy. It helped, but not a lot.

About six weeks ago, I had met a girl named Claire. She was a first-year student at Annapolis. I guess I sort of liked her. Thalia convinced me to ask her out. It was hard for me to do; I still wasn't anywhere near over the death of Annabeth. It's not that she and I had dated or anything, but once she was gone I had realized that she might have really meant more to me than a best friend. It's one of those things you don't notice until the other person is gone. Sometimes you don't realize how much something or someone really means to you until you don't have it-or in this case 'her'- anymore. And a serious slip into depression sure demonstrated that to me.

Anyhow, Thalia kept pestering me saying that it would be good for me, so eventually I asked Claire out.

Now I was waiting for her near a Thai place just off-campus. I didn't manage to make my hair look respectable, so Thalia had just mussed it up even more, saying, "as long as it's going to look like a rat's nest, you might as well go all out." I was wearing blue jeans and a white dress shirt; sleeves rolled up just passed my elbows.

Claire showed up. She looked beautiful, as usual. And _very_ similar to me. She wore skinny blue jeans and a white dress shirt; sleeves rolled up just pass her elbows. Her black hair was messy, a little longer than shoulder length. She was also exactly my height. She didn't wear any noticeable makeup, which reminded me sadly of Annabeth.

"Hey, Percy," she said, grinning, looking me up and down. She grinned even wider. "We match."

"Sure do," I said. It was probably pretty lame, but hey. I had no experience with this sort of thing.

"Well," she said. "We going somewhere or what?"

"Right," I said, resisting the urge to slap myself for my stupidity. I pointed down the street to the sign for the Thai restaurant. "Like Thai food?"

She nodded fervently. "Sure do! No one doesn't like Thai food!"

I chuckled as we began to walk down the street. "Thalia doesn't."

Claire's jaw dropped. "Impossible."

I nodded, grinning. "I know, right? It's insane. But she's insane, so I suppose it's to be expected."

Claire flashed her trademarked dangerous smile. I had only known her for six weeks, but that was long enough to figure out what her various smiles meant.

"Oh, no you don't." I said. She was going to try and pull a Thai food-related prank on Thalia.

"Why not?" she retorted.

"Have you ever _seen_ Thalia when she gets mad? It's _scary_," I said, shivering,

Claire glared at me, and I practically had to hold myself to stop cowering. I gulped. "Okay, I admit. You could probably give Thalia a run for her money on the dangerousness scale."

It was true. Though Claire looked sort of like me, she was similar to Thalia as far as personality goes, minus the whole punk thing. And minus the whole men-should-go-to-Hades thing. But not entirely. I supposed I was pretty lucky to be going out with Claire. She's beautiful, so guys tried to flirt with her all the time. Most of them end up running home clutching some horrible injury. And the ones who didn't were the ones who weren't so lucky.

Satisfied by my response, she tossed her hair defiantly, and I laughed. She looked over at me, grinning. "I suppose I have to work on that one, huh?" she said. She tried the defiant hair-toss again. She was okay at it, I thought, but not nearly as good as Annabeth was. Oh, gods no, Percy. Try not to think about Annabeth. Happy thoughts. Happy night. Happy thoughts. Happy night.

"You're thinking about her, aren't you," said Claire, as we kept walking.

"Who?" I asked.

"Annabeth," said Claire simply. I stopped and looked down at my feet.

"I don't remember telling you about her," I mumbled.

"You didn't. Thalia filled me in one day. I got curious about why you always seemed so depressed."

I looked up at Claire nervously, expecting her to have an angry expression on her face. I wouldn't have blamed her. I was on a date with her, and I was thinking about another girl. She had every right to be angry.

But she wasn't. She was just looking at me, extreme pity obvious on her face. "You loved her, didn't you," she said.

I shook my head slowly. "I really don't know," I said sadly.

Claire put an arm around my shoulder and we started walking again. "C'mon, Percy. Let's go eat," she said soothingly.

I looked her in the eye, "you're not angry at me?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Why would I be angry?"

"Because I was thinking about another girl while I was on a date with you," I said.

Claire shook her head. "It's okay. Besides," she said, stopping at the door to the Thai restaurant, "the date technically hasn't started yet."

I nodded and reached for the door handle. She grabbed my arm and stopped me. "I want you to promise me something," she said. "Once you walk through those doors, I want you to try not to think about her. Not because I'm selfish, though. I just want you to try to enjoy the night."

I nodded and reached for the door handle again. She stopped me again. "Before you go in, I have a question for you. About Annabeth. It has to do with your past," she said, "and I want to know. But I can't ask you if you aren't supposed to be thinking about her." I looked down and nodded slightly.

"What did the two of you go through together?" she asked. "All Thalia would say was 'more than you can imagine.'"

I shook my head slowly. I was fairly certain that Claire was a mortal, so I couldn't exactly tell her. "I can't tell you," I said. Claire looked a bit disappointed. "Maybe someday, though," I added.

She nodded and reached for the door.

"Wait!" said a familiar voice from behind me. I turned around. It was my dad, standing there in Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

"D-d-dad," I stammered, "What are you doing here."

Claire turned around from the door as well.

"I didn't want to interfere, but this was just too sick. Both of you, come with me," he said, leading us down the street before I could ask any questions.

We arrived at an alley. It wasn't quite night yet, so the alley wasn't dark or creepy. Yet.

"What's this about, Dad," I said. Claire was just studying him strangely.

"I didn't want to tell anyone about her true identity, but it would have been too disgusting to let the two of you go on a date," he said.

"My true identity?" Claire demanded.

"Disgusting?" I inquired.

"Claire, do you know who your father is?" Poseidon inquired. She shook her head.

Suddenly, I understood what he was getting at. "Impossible," I muttered.

"No, it isn't," Poseidon said.

"What?!" Claire demanded angrily.

"I think…" I gulped, "I think he's trying to say that you're, uhm, my sister."

Poseidon nodded.

"That's not possible," said Claire.

"Is it really?" asked Poseidon rhetorically. "Look into each other's eyes. What do you see?" he asked.

And so I looked into her green eyes. Her _sea_ green eyes. Exactly like mine. Her eyes widened in surprised, and I'm sure mine were doing the same. Gods, I'm such an idiot. Why hadn't I noticed this before?

I was convinced, but Claire folded her arms defiantly. "I'm not convinced," she said.

Poseidon sighed. He snapped his fingers, and in a flash of light, a very confused looking woman appeared.

"Hello, Mary," said Poseidon.

"Mom!" exclaimed Claire. She looked up at Poseidon. "How the hell did you do that?"

The woman, Mary, also looked sadly up at Poseidon, who nodded. "I…I suppose it's time for the truth," she said, a single tear falling down her cheek. "This is your father, Poseidon."

Claire looked at him, "Poseidon? Like the Greek God?"

Poseidon snorted. "Not like the Greek God, child," he said. "I am the Greek Poseidon."

Claire shook her head, looking frantically from me to Poseidon to her mom. "No, no," she said. "This isn't possible. You're crazy! All of you!" She started to back away.

"It is true, dear," said Mary. Claire backed into a puddle and slipped. My ADHD kicking in, I lunged forward grabbed her arm to break her fall.

A puddle.

"I can prove it, Claire," I said slowly. I felt a tugging in my gut.

Claire looked at me suspiciously, about to ask how, but then she stopped. A swirling whirlwind of water rose from the puddle in front of her, courtesy of me. Her eyes widened, darting between me and the waterspout. "Are you…" she began.

I nodded.

Claire raised an eyebrow. "Make it go left."

I did so.

She grinned. "Make it taller."

I concentrated, and the spout grew to a good six feet.

"That's wicked!" she exclaimed happily. "Does this mean I can do that too?"

I nodded. "It might take awhile to master the skill, but yes. Children of Poseidon can control water."

"Cool!" she exclaimed.

"That's not all," I said grinning. The waterspout shot forward and slammed into her. I let it dissolve to the ground.

Claire was fuming. "You little-" she started, advancing towards me.

"No, wait!" I exclaimed, genuinely afraid of her. "Look at yourself! You're not wet!"

She looked down at her dry clothes. "Sweet," she muttered.

I nodded.

"Well, I supposed we'll just leave you two to it then," said my -erm, our- father.

I looked over at him curiously. "How have you kept her hidden from the monsters for so long?" I asked him. An eighteen (or was she nineteen?) year old demigod who doesn't know her identity is not something you come across on a regular and frequent basis, let alone if the demigod in question is a child of one of the big three.

Poseidon sighed. "That is a story for another day, son," he said. "It is long and complicated."

I made a wide gesture. "Got all the time in the world, dad," I said.

He shook his head with a sense of finality. "Not now, Percy. Just know that now that the protection is now gone. She is open to attack." He snapped his fingers, and Mary disappeared. Then he strode quickly out of the alley and down the street.

"Uhm…attack?" Claire said nervously.

"Yeah," I sighed. "I've got a lot of explaining to do."

Claire nodded.

"Thalia could help me with that. I've never been any good at explain this sort of thing to people."

"Thalia?" asked Claire. "Is she half-god too?"

I nodded. "The term is demigod, and yes, she's a daughter of Zeus."

"Oh," said Claire. "So that's why you haven't been dating her. She's your cousin."

I shook my head. "No. I just don't like her that way. And she's a huntress of Artemis," I said.

"A huntress?" Claire asked.

I nodded, "she's sworn off men."

Claire giggled slightly. "If you say it that way, it sounds like men are like cigarettes or an alcoholic beverage," she said.

I laughed.

She looked at me strangely. "How come her being your cousin wouldn't stop you from asking her out if you like her? Isn't that a little…gross?"

I shook my head. "Gods don't have DNA. So it wouldn't really be disguising. Except for the fact that she's Thalia."

Claire grinned and nodded. Then a thought occurred to her. "Was Annabeth a…demigod too?"

I nodded sadly. "A daughter of Athena. The bravest, smartest, strongest, and most beautiful person I had ever met."

Claire looked like she was thinking about something. "So that makes her, what? Your second cousin?"

I nodded. "Technically. But we demigods usually don't think about it that way."

She nodded slowly. After a long pause; "I suppose this means our date is off?"

I laughed. "Yeah. As far as demigod romances go, cousins are okay, but siblings are _totally_ off limits," I responded I made an exaggerated belching motion.

She laughed with me and we started to walk out of the alley. "So, now can you tell me what it was that Annabeth and you did together?"

I sighed sadly. "Yes, but not here. Lets head to my apartment. It's only a few blocks from here," I said. Thalia and I, along with our friends Mitch Bruce and Bertha Valera, shared a mid-sized apartment on the outskirts of the campus. Mitch and Bertha (who were _not_ half bloods) were probably out, so Thalia and I could fill Claire in on everything. I led my newfound sister down the street, feeling the happiest I had felt in a good year and a half.

**And that's all, folks. This was a short companion piece to Rule the Waves, which you should read if you haven't already**. **Please review, and be on the lookout for the next chapter of Rule the Waves and possibly a second chapter to this story.**


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